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Palais Edinburgh

Palais Edinburgh? You would be excused for thinking that you need to travel somewhere in the United Kingdom, particularly Scotland, to find a palace with such a name. However, this little gem is actually to be found in Germany - or Coburg, to be more specific. Coburg, of course, is well connected to the British royal family due to a couple of 19th century marriages, most famously that of Queen Victoria and Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. It is also through one of their sons that this little palace received its name though its origins go back a little bit further. It was Baron Karl August of Wangenheim who built the palace between 1845 and 1846 facing the ducal residence Schloss Ehrenburg. The Baron of Wangenheim, however, could only enjoy his new residence, at the time known as Palais Wangenheim or (Wangenheimsches Palais), for a handful of years as he passed in 1850.

In 1865, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Victoria and Albert and heir to his childless uncle Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, purchased the building. He commissioned Georg Konrad Rothbart to give the palace a Neo-Renaissance makeover and to add a third floor. Alfred, however, did not move into the palace immediately but it was instead used as a guest house. Its most famous guest? Non other than Queen Victoria who stayed here for ten days in April 1876. Only in 1881, after further renovations and additions, Alfred and his family spent more time in Coburg to get better acquainted with his future Dukedom. Starting in 1889, the Edinburgh-Palais served Alfred, his wife née Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and their five children as a home. Alfred succeeded his uncle as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1893.

After Duke Alfred's death in 1900, his widow Maria moved back into the Palais Edinburgh opposite Schloss Ehrenburg. She continued to live there until her own death in 1920. The Palais was inherited by their third daughter Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. In 1939, she sold her parents' former home to the Coburg Chamber of Industry and Commerce. After the end of World War II, Palais Edinburgh was used by the U.S. military and also housed a cultural centre called "America House" until it was returned to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce who continue to use the Palais to this day.

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It's been almost a month since the last update on Confessions of a Castleholic and while the above picture might suggest otherwise (it's not a castle but the New Town Hall in Hanover, actually), I haven't been castle hunting for quite a few weeks now. Still, I wanted to give you a quick update to say that everything is fine. More than fine, actually: As some of you have already learned via any of my social media channels, I'm moving to Berlin later this month and so life has been pretty hectic and busy. But I'm looking forward to Berlin and discovering all the Prussian palaces surrounding it. In the meantime, castle hunting and blogging had to step back a little but I will be back with more castles later this year.

Today in Hanover, Hereditary Prince Ernst-August of Hanover married Ekaterina Malysheva. Here are some of the guests, in no particular order...
Margrave Max and Margravine Valerie of Baden, née Archduchess Valerie of Austria, with their son Prince Michael and his wife Princess Christina of Baden.
Count Friedrich of Ortenburg and his wife Countess Christine, née Baroness of Wangenheim, with their sons Max and Albert, who were two of the page boys.
Count Karl of Solms-Laubach and I presume one of his daughters.
Andrés and Lauren Santo Domingo.
Another picture of Andrés and Lauren Santo Domingo.
Prince Georg-Friedrich of Prussia and his wife Princess Sophie, née Princess of Isenburg.
Another picture of the couple.
Prince Heinrich of Hanover, uncle of the groom, his wife Princess Thyra, née von Westernhagen, and their sons Prince Albert and Prince Julius.
Another picture of Prince Heinrich and Princess Thyra of Hanover.
Prince Andreas and Princess Alexandra of Leiningen. She is a bo…

The death of Richard Fürst zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg earlier this week saw a surge in interest in my take on the (in)famous will of inheritance looming over the family. One point about the Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg inheritance that many seem to find especially curious is the fact that the late Prince Richard never actually owned his family's fortune but that it was instead passed from his father - who went missing during World War 2 - to a yet unborn grandson - who was born in 1969 - (or anyone else, really, who would inherit after Prince Richard). The German nobility, however, isn't short of interesting inheritance constructions - case in point: The Thurn und Taxis inheritance.
The Thurn und Taxis family isn't just famous for their fabulous wealth, estimated at around $ 2.5 billion today - even though Princess Gloria of Thurn und Taxis says it less than a billion - but also for their lifestyle to go along with it. In fact, Princess Gloria of Thurn und Taxis may si…